Very Simply Susan

Happy April’s Fool’s Day!  I wish I had thought of something clever to make today. But I can at least say I have taken a Valentine’s Day paper design and turned it into a springlike birthday card!

I love the detailed black & white graphics of the True Love DSP. But sometimes, you need to add a little color.  And as this card shows, you only have to add a little and its just enough! While I have spend the time coloring in entire backgrounds before, I felt that by just selecting certain sections, it would be enough to create the look I was after for this design.

I matched the layers for the card and the sentiment to the colors in the background. To add some interest to the large label the birthday sentiment from Happiest of Birthdays, I stamped the cute Daisies from the Framed for You set and colored the center in with an Old Olive blend. If you overlooked the Framed for You set from this year’s catalog, take another look. It’s a sweet little set with wonderful sentiments and some dainty little elements that work for cards, gift tags and gift packaging in so many ways. The lovely frame stamp is perfectly sized for one of the Layering Squares dies, allowing you to customize a loved one’s picture for a small shadow box frame or card.

What I Used To Make This Card

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Who doesn’t love making cards with circle shapes? Circles are easy shapes to work with and make an interesting design on any card. Circle Celebration from the Jan-Jun 2021 Mini caught my eye almost the first look at the catalog and this is the first time I have used it. I thought the challenge for #GDP245 at Global Design Project was an interesting layout and perfect for the Circle Celebration card set. If you want to see more designs for this challenge, just click on the image below to see some great card ideas.

For my card, I decided to do something with gray and yellow. I have love this combo for a while now and when it came out as Pantone’s color duo of the year, I was excited to see what apparel, interior decor and so much more was going to be available in this combination. I used Gray Granite and So Saffron, which I felt had a very mellow feel to it.

The card is cased from the Global Design Project “Case the Designer” card you see above. I love to work with collages and Circle Celebration is an easy stamp set for this type of design. I really used all the stamps in the set and then punched them out to see what I liked. My card above was my final choice.

What I Used To Make This Card:

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There are times when I like the matching die sets more than I do the stamp set. The Dandy Wishes dies I used in this card are one of these times! I had a Demonstrator swap due and the theme was Sympathy cards. I wanted something cheery but simple. The graphics in these patterns from the Dandy Garden DSP really caught my eye the first time I looked at this paper set. I always think there is a lot of potential with monochromatic graphic paper designs.

By using the two patterns in the paper and piecing them, I was able to make enough cards the swap required with a 6″ x 6″ DSP paper stack. I simply cut the paper to the width I needed and cut each of those pieces in half and then pieced them to make the background. The ribbon hides the seam, mostly!

All the contrast for this tone on tone paper is provided by the ribbon trim, the die cuts and a layer behind the sentiment. Using a “dark-light” combination makes the contrast dramatic and eye-catching. A couple of enamel dots and the card was done! It’s understated enough for a sympathy card with just enough whimsy to make the recipient feel a little cheer.

What I Used To Make This Card:

If you like to craft with kids, you don’t want to miss this one!